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CNN Live Today

Supreme Court In Session; Miers Announced as Supreme Court Nominee; Tour Boat Capsizes, Killing 20 People; Campaign Encourages Americans To Conserve

Aired October 03, 2005 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The center seat on the bench.
Congressman Tom DeLay is promising a quick return to his role as majority leader. Meanwhile, DeLay says he'll keep pushing the GOP agenda. DeLay had to step aside as floor leader after being indicted last week. He's accused of conspiring to violate campaign finance laws. He calls the case frivolous.

And one of America's great playwrights has died. Pulitzer Prize Winner August Wilson died of liver cancer yesterday in Seattle. He was 60. He's best known for his 10-play cycle dramatizing African- American life in the 20th century. A Broadway theater will be renamed in his honor later this month.

It is Monday morning. Thanks for being here with me. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta.

We are following a couple of stories unfolding at this hour as we look at live pictures of the Supreme Court. The high court returns to work. After all, this is the first Monday in October. New Chief Justice John Roberts is there and a new presidential nominee is waiting in the wings.

Also this hour, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman will unveil a national campaign confronting the deepening energy crunch. He'll focus on conservation tips for families, businesses and government.

The start of the session and a new beginning for John Roberts and the beginning of the end for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Just two hours ago President Bush introduced his choice to succeed her you saw this live here on CNN White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Republicans and Democrats will debate her qualifications since she doesn't have a judicial record. She has never before served as a judge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've given a lot of thought to the kind of people who should serve on the federal judiciary. I've come to agree with the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist who wrote about the importance of having judges who are drawn from a wide diversity of professional backgrounds. Justice Rehnquist himself came to the Supreme Court without prior experience on the bench, as did more than 35 other men, including Byron White. And I'm proud to nominate an outstanding woman who brings a similar record of achievement in private practice and public service.

HARRIET MIERS, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: It is the responsibility of every generation to be true to the founders' vision of the proper role of the courts in our society. If confirmed, I recognize that I will have a tremendous responsibility to keep our judicial system strong and to help ensure that the courts meet their obligations to strictly apply the laws and the constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And the response is already coming in. Let's listen in now a little bit to Charles Schumer, Democratic senator from New York.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: He sent us a nominee who we really don't know that much about. And we are certainly we Democrats are going to look at this nominee with a complete and open mind.

Having said that, we know less about this nominee than we knew about John Roberts in terms of judicial philosophy, in terms of legal background. And because this nomination is for the swing seat on the Supreme Court, it means learning the nominee's judicial philosophy is going to be even more important than it was for John Roberts. That means that the kind of thorough review of Harriet Miers' previous record and the kinds of questions that John Roberts answered some of, but not enough of, are going to be very important to have, to make such a determination.

So today is a day, I guess, we put of some hope. There's hope that Harriet Miers is a mainstream nominee. A very preliminary review shows nothing in her record that would indicate she wouldn't be. But very little in her record that indicates she would be as well. We just don't know very much.

But given the fact that the extreme wing of the president's party was demanding someone of fealty to their views, this is a good first day in the process that begins to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor.

KAGAN: We've been listening in to Charles Schumer, the Democratic senator from New York, with the first initial response on Harriet Miers, the nominee to fill the seat that will be vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor.

With more on this, let's bring in our Jeffrey Toobin, our senior legal analyst.

Jeffrey, whether it's conservatives on the right or liberals, what a scratching of heads. Harriet Miers? This woman's never been a judge. What do we know about her?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of scratching of heads, Daryn.

You know, we were just in the courtroom for the investiture of John Roberts as chief justice, this very ceremony, and so one of my colleagues in the press said to me, you know, it was full of lawyers and judges. Nine-tenths of the people in this courtroom think they're more qualified than Harriet Miers to be on the Supreme Court.

And I think that's right. I think she's a very unusual choice. Yes, it's true, that there are people who have not had judicial experience named to the Supreme Court, but they tend to be governors, senators, people who have had jobs that require senate confirmation. Harriet Miers has had none of that. So a lot of scratching of heads on the left and the right.

KAGAN: We'll get to Harriet Miers in just a moment. First, a word here on John Roberts. His first big day of chief justice. Any early signs of the kind of imprint that he is going to leave on this court?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, there's a little window into the world of the Supreme Court this morning. You know, leave it to the Supreme Court to invite the president of the United States to a ceremony and not let him say a word. There was a very brief investiture ceremony at 9:15 Eastern Time this morning. The president sat there and watched.

John Paul Stephens administered the oath. It was actually a very moving ceremony. All eight associate justices stood up and watched the oath be taken. John Roberts had a look on his face I don't think I'm interpreting too much a little bit of, wow, look what I've gotten myself into. I mean it was really quite an awesome ceremony. But I'll be jumping back into the courtroom in about 25 minutes to hear him preside over his first case.

KAGAN: Now he has to be it, after all.

TOOBIN: Exactly.

KAGAN: This is a little trivia question. Is he going to wear those gold bars on his shoulders like William Rehnquist did that people made and took notice on because no chief just had done that for a long time.

TOOBIN: Daryn, I can answer officially that at least for today, and I suspect for the long term, he is not wearing the gold bars. I think that will be a signature of the former chief justice that probably won't be duplicated by his protege and former law clerk John Roberts. So no gold bars on the sleeves for John Roberts.

KAGAN: All right. Well, as you said, you're going back in to watch the first case. What is the first case?

TOOBIN: You know what, Daryn, I am embarrassed to say, I don't know. It is not the assisted suicide case.

KAGAN: That's tomorrow.

TOOBIN: No, I think that's Wednesday.

KAGAN: OK. TOOBIN: But I think the case is I saw it earlier and, frankly, I don't remember. It's not a particularly earth-shake case. It will be mostly famous as the first case heard by John Roberts.

KAGAN: It might be the trucker case. There was a trucker case out there. We'll check on that.

TOOBIN: I'll check back with you.

KAGAN: OK.

TOOBIN: All right. See you, Daryn. Sorry.

KAGAN: Breaking news, the first case. Thank you. That's all right. Thank you, Jeff.

Let's go to the White House. Dana Bash standing by there where the announcement was made of President Bush's choice to fill the seat being vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And a little bit more information now about the president's process that he went through in picking Harriet Miers. We already reported that the president actually offered the job to Ms. Miers last night here at the White House residence over dinner. But that was actually the fourth private meeting that the two had to discuss the potential for her to get this job. They had four meetings that started on September 21st to talk about her filling the role, filling the slot of Sandra Day O'Connor.

Now she, of course, as you've been discussing with Jeff Toobin, is somebody who is very close to the president, is somebody who is in his inner circle and is somebody actually, despite the fact that she's been here at the White House, has had a very low public profile. In fact, we have never interviewed her, haven't been able to get an interview with her and I haven't seen very many that she's done in public. And as you were discussing with Jeff, it is also her judicial record or lack thereof that is also raising some concern, not only among Democrats, but also among some conservatives, Daryn.

Publically, so far at least, leading conservatives who are very close to the White House are trying to sort of set the tone on this. We saw a statement earlier today trying to sort of assure rank and file conservatives that she is OK. Leonard Leo with the Federalist Society put out a statement saying that she led a campaign to have the American Bar Association in Texas end its practice of supporting abortion on demand and taxpayer-funded abortions. That is something that was certainly a signal, as I said, to the conservative base.

But still a lot of questions about her record. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are hearing from the White House this morning that perhaps one of the reasons that the president chose her is because they actually some Democrats threw out her name in some of the private consultative processes or meetings with President Bush. Democrats are saying certainly she is somebody who they were interested in hearing or somebody who is not a tough conservative. Somebody who they would be absolutely opposed to and filibuster, but not necessarily somebody who they would go for right away. They certainly say that she has a clean slate, a blank slate, and that is a concern to Democrats and Republicans.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And, Dana, then there's this part of the story. They're calling it, pulling a Cheney. She was in charge of the search committee and she looks around and she says, I pick me.

BASH: That's right. That's right. And, you know, the White House says that actually over the summer that the process to pick John Robert, in the process that led to Harriet Miers, they say, was all sort of part of one big process, if you will. And that actually over the summer the president first considered putting Harriet Miers on the bench and he although she was leading the charge, if you will, he had some private meetings with other top aides here to go forward with the search process over Harriet Miers.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Dana Bash live at the White House. Thank you.

Let's go ahead and welcome in Edward Lazarus. He is a specialist on the Supreme Court and he is the author of a book on justices called "Closed Chambers."

Ed, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.

EDWARD LAZARUS, LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, my pleasure.

KAGAN: So you can be a Supreme Court justice and never having been a judge. That has happened, but not in a long time.

LAZARUS: Well, it hasn't happened in a while. Though, of course, Chief Justice Rehnquist didn't come with any judicial experience and there have been others in the past. But it's unusual in this day and age. Everybody looks to the federal judiciary for the nominees.

KAGAN: We heard Charles Schumer, the senator from New York, staying, oh we're going to need to know a lot more about what her views are and the questioning is going to have to be a lot tougher than they were for John Roberts. But the way the system is set up, there's no guarantee they're going to get those answers.

LAZARUS: That's exactly right and I'm sure that Harriet Miers and the White House are going to resist releasing the internal memoranda of what she thinks on various issues from her time in the White House council's office. So I think, you know, once again, the first battle is going to be over, what are we going to be able to learn about this nominee who is really an unknown both in Washington and outside of Washington.

KAGAN: And because she's a blank slate, even more question marks that come with every justice, that you really never know, no matter what their record is going in to their service on the court, who and what they become once they become a justice.

LAZARUS: That's very true. I was interested in her opening remarks, however, in which she was clearly making some signals to the right wing saying, I'm going to be OK. She used the words "strictly apply the law," which is kind of a buzz term for strict constructionism, which is a conservative judicial philosophy. She talked about being true to the founders. That's another kind of tip of the cap to Justices Scalia and Thomas who believe in interpreting the Constitution according to the intend of the framers of the Constitution.

So maybe she's getting off on a bit of a conservative foot saying, at least to the right wing base of the Republican Party, I'm OK.

KAGAN: But we have seen both with a more liberal justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and now with John Roberts, both get confirmed without answering a lot of questions about their views.

LAZARUS: Oh, very true. Very true. And that's going to be the big battle this time around.

KAGAN: All right. We'll be watching it. Ed Lazarus, thank you.

LAZARUS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: We're going to have a lot more on this story ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.

Also, a picture perfect sailing trip turns tragic. A tour boat capsizes, downing 20 passengers. Now questions this morning on why and how it happened.

Plus, a little girl lost. Her mother missing and presumed dead. A tragic story out of New York City with an ending that is still uncertain.

And signs of life return in New Orleans. School's back in session.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Investigators are looking for the why of how a tour boat capsized yesterday in upstate New York killing 20 people. The boat was carrying a lot of senior citizens. It flipped over on Lake George. Police initially suspected a larger boat's weight caused the accident. For an update, let's go live to our Susan Lisovicz who is at the scene.

Susan, hello.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And it appears to be carbon copy weather of what people enjoyed here yesterday. Sunny, clear sky, balmy temperatures. All of this very helpful to authorities as they begin the difficult process of salvaging the Ethan Allen, which lies submerged in 70 feet of water just offshore from where I'm standing.

The big mystery, of course, is how a boat that appeared to be in good working order with a good safety record could suddenly capsize and sink in just moments, it seemed, on what appeared to be a very tranquil day. We do know that the boat was nearly at its legal capacity. It had a capacity of 50 passengers. There were 48 people aboard. But it went over so quickly, Daryn, that there was literally no time for people to prepare.

We did talk to one of the first responders to the scene who described absolutely harrowing conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOUNIR RAHAL, RESCUER: We did not see no people in the beginning because the boat was ready almost three quarters of the way in the water. But we heard a lot of screaming and yelling. We turned to the other side of the boat, that's when we saw most of these folks holding on the side of the body with their hand and just screaming and yelling for help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LISOVICZ: And because it was such a beautiful day yesterday, Daryn, there were hundreds of pleasure boats in the area and those people abruptly stopped their day, their weekend of fun and became rescuers. And some of those people were critical in getting 27 people, at least, to safety.

We do know that from a briefing this morning by the sheriff's department that they are examining all sorts of angles. Everything from the weight of the boat, of course, to the heavy boat traffic in the area. And then reports that have just been circulating since the very beginning that there might have been a heavy wake in the area of this Ethan Allen that may have contributed to destabilizing the boat.

The NTSB is on the scene. We are expecting a press conference at 11:30. We, of course, will bring you details as soon as we get them. And the sheriff's department will be holding another press conference at 2:00 p.m. We'll be monitoring that as well.

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: So, Susan, there are a lot of older people on this boat and they have life preservers on the boat but they weren't wearing them.

LISOVICZ: That's right. Well, first of all, it's not required by law. New York state law requires that, of course, the boat have as many life preservers as its legal capacity for one. And there, for adults, you don't have to wear them under New York state law.

We should also mention that it was a beautiful day. Calm, tranquil and that's, of course, one of the great threats of water like this. It's very dangerous. It was in 70 feet of water. These people, in many cases, were feeble. And also what contributed to the tragedy as well, is the boat keeled over, trapping some people underneath. So it just undoubtedly contributed to the of a high casualty count.

KAGAN: Very sad and still a lot of answers to get.

Susan, thank you.

Usually when we're talking about problems with water lately, we have been talk about hurricanes. Well, get ready for more storm weather. That is the word this morning from hurricane expert William Gray. His prediction for the rest of the season along with your Monday forecast is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check out the markets. They've been open about 52 minutes. Kind of a tepid start to a Monday morning. The Dow, as you can see, is down 7 points. It looks like it's going up, though. And the Nasdaq a little bit into positive territory. It is up two.

As you well know, this has been one of the most active hurricane seasons on record. Eighteen named storms, including nine hurricanes, five of them major. William Gray says, can't let our guard down yet. The Colorado State University professor predicts there will be three named storms this month, two of them hurricanes and one, he says, a major hurricane. Let's check in with our Jacqui Jeras and see what she thinks of that prediction.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Well, just minutes ago the Energy Department unveiled its national campaign to encourage energy conservation in hopes of easing the fuel crunch. So how effective could such a program be? Here with today's fact check, our business news correspondent Chris Huntington.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning to you.

Well, this is the administration finding religion perhaps a little bit late in the game. But nonetheless, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman laying out a plan to get the message out to American consumers and American businesses that saving energy, conserving energy, is a top priority. The Energy Department is going to be rolling out a series of public service announcements in conjunction with a group called the Alliance to Save Energy, which is a bipartisan group and includes many captains of industry. It is a generally solid effort to get the word out that frankly all of us, all Americans, have to save energy. And here is how the energy secretary put it with regard to personal contributions to this effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL BODMAN, ENERGY SECRETARY: Conserving energy and implementing important efficiency measures right now are steps that all of us can take to make a difference today. I can't stress that last point enough. Individual action from every American can add up to a tremendous collective effort and can produce significant results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTINGTON: Now as you can imagine, the actual suggestion are things that you all already know. Keep your car in good tune, inflate your tires. You can turn off your lights, turn down your thermostat. Make sure your home is better insulated.

Perhaps the most significant thing that the energy department is going to do is to make available to industry, groups of traveling efficiency experts that will go into corporations, go into factories, and tell them how they can run their operations more efficiently. Because, Daryn, one of the biggest wasters of energy, of course, is the business sector, which leaves lights on all the time, which runs factories, perhaps, in ways that are not entirely efficient. So that could be a big, big plus if, in fact, those efficiency experts can get the message out.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Chris, we'll see you later with other business news just ahead. That was Chris Huntington at the New York Stock Exchange.

She led the search for a replacement on the Supreme Court only to find herself now the president's nominee. How did that work? Coming up, the politics at play in the coming weeks for Harriet Miers, the new nominee. Our senior analyst, political analyst, well, Candy Crowley will be along.

Engaging the insurgents in Iraq. A major new offensive enters day three and CNN is alongside U.S. troops on the front lines as innocent civilians get caught in the crossfire.

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